Marlies Outlast Monsters in Overtime Thriller

Game Recap

Mason Marchment scored twice, including the overtime winner, to help propel the Marlies past the Monsters in the first of three straight meetings between the two sides Friday night in Cleveland.

The Marlies didn’t wait long to get the scoring started as Carl Grundstrom threw one on net that found a way in at just the 1:14 mark of the opening frame. Andreas Borgman and Vincent LoVerde had the assists.

Eric Robinson scored for Cleveland to cut into the lead again less than two minutes later and then, with a late power play chance, Letestu scored his second to tie the game with just 1:57 left in the third.

The game headed to overtime where Marchment was the hero as he batted the puck out of the air off a rebound from Brooks’ initial shot to put the game to rest. Calle Rosen had the secondary assist on the winner.

Carl Grundstrom opened the scoring at 1:14 and later scored unassisted at 17:16 of the first period. He added the primary assist on Engvall’s third period goal. This is Grundstrom’s second game recording two goals this season. Grundstrom has 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists) in 15 games this season.

Andreas Borgman scored at 8:27 of the first period and earlier added the primary assist on Grundstrom’s first goal of the game. Borgman has registered 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists) through 16 games this season.

Mason Marchment scored at 1:52 of the third period and the game-winner at 4:17 of overtime. He earlier had the lone assist on Borgman’s first period goal. Marchment has now recorded the overtime winner in two consecutive games. Marchment has 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) through 12 games this season.

Pierre Engvall scored unassisted at 4:16 of the third period. Engvall has 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) through 15 games this season.

Vincent LoVerde recorded the secondary assist on Grundstrom’s first goal of the first period.

Trevor Moore registered the primary assist on Marchment’s third period goal. Moore has 13 points (9 goals, 4 assists) in 14 games this season.

Adam Brooks had the secondary assist on Marchment’s third period goal and the primary assist on Marchment’s game-winner in overtime. Brooks has five points (1 goal, 4 assists) in five games this season.

Calle Rosen recorded the secondary assist on Marchment’s game-winning goal in overtime. Rosen leads the Marlies in assists (13). Rosen has 15 points (2 goals, 13 assists) through 17 games this season.

Eamon McAdam stopped 32 of 37 shots he faced and recorded the secondary assist on Engvall’s third period goal for his first point of the season. McAdam is now 3-0-1-1 on the season with a .891 Save Percentage and a 3.16 Goals Against Average.

NOTABLES

Sheldon Keefe has tied the franchise record for wins (157) by a head coach with Dallas Eakins.

Toronto went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-4 on the power play.

Toronto had a 48-37 edge in shots in all situations, setting a season-high for Toronto.

Chris Mueller led the Marlies with seven shots on goal.

The Marlies are 6-7-1-2 against North Division opponents and are 1-1-0-1 against the Cleveland Monsters this season. The Marlies have been outscored by the Monsters 17-15 with five games remaining this season

On tonight’s game:
I liked most of our game. I thought our guys played a really good hockey game today. The reality is we just keep making mistakes. We play a great game, we play great periods, great segments of the game where we’re in full control and then one mistake, two mistakes and it ends up in your net. Special teams, obviously, continue to be a liability. We need to find some solutions there as a coaching staff. Our guys played hard today, did a lot of great things. We’re finding ways to get two points again here. We know we have to find ways to eliminate the mistakes. Mistakes are being made by guys that were big parts of us helping to win the championship last year and know better. For some reason, we continue to do it. But I liked our game today. We just have to eliminate the mistakes that ended up in our net.

On the quick start to the game:
Getting a good start today was important for us. It hadn’t been the case for us in the previous two games we played against this team. We played a good first period, disappointing to give up the goal like we did but it was good first period. Played a pretty good second period again too but obviously, they scored two, we scored none and didn’t build our lead. Loved the way we came out in the third period, took charge of the game and built ourselves the lead again. We just made mistakes and gave it back to them. It’s disappointing because the guys played hard enough and well enough to get a better result but it just shows that we’ve got work that we’ve got to continue to do here.

Game Preview

The Toronto Marlies (6-7-1-2) and Cleveland Monsters (9-7-1-0) will square off Friday night for the first of three consecutive games between the two sides, in a divisional battle that’s sure to heat up as the season moves on.

While the Monsters have won the first two meetings on the season, the Marlies have the better record over the past ten games losing just three of their last ten in regulation.

There’s been no shortage of goals between the two sides this season as they’ve combined for 21 in the two games played. The Marlies have 65 goals so far on the season, putting them in a tie for second-most in the league.

Chris Mueller is leading that attack offensively for the Marlies with eight goals and 16 points on the season. Blueliner Calle Rosen is second on the team with 15 points (2G, 13A) while Trevor Moore (9G, 3A) and Carl Grundstrom (5G, 7A) each have 12 points.

At the other end, Zac Dalpe is leading the Monsters attack with 19 points (12G, 7A), five of those goals coming through the two games in the season series so far.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 and fans can catch all the action on AHLTV.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates and behind-the-scenes content all season long.